Shell’s involvement in extracting oil from Canada’s tar sands will be ‘very much slower’ than in recent years, the company’s new CEO told the Financial Times in an interview.

Peter Voser, who took over in July, told the paper Shell now planned to rely more on conventional oil and gas reserves for its future growth.
The paper said Shell is raising its tar sands production to a capacity of 255,000 barrels per day, due to be completed next year. However, Voser said the company had ‘clearly scaled down’ its earlier plans for a further rise to 700,000 barrels a day.
Earlier this month critical investors demanded that Shell carries out a proper assessment of the risks of extracting oil from tar sand in parts of Canada.
Up to 142 investors backed a motion demanding Shell present the research at the company’s annual general meeting in 2011. The motion will be debated at the oil giant’s AGM in May this year, lobby group FairPensions said.